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Resist and Switch on March 3rd

For those who don’t know, a game jam is an event where game designers, programmers, and artists split into teams (are often assigned a theme) and produce a game in a short period of time. Most game jams I hear about are 24 hours, 48 hours, and occasionally 72 hours. A week long game jam is being hosted by Indiecade and takes place from March 3-11. This offers plenty of time to make something really cool. If I were to take part in my first game jam, a week is the amount of time I’d prefer. I can schedule it in my life, and really fine tune the project, hopefully resulting in better communicating a message (if that’s what I’m trying to do). There are game jams all the time, so why am I talking about this? Well, other than the fact that I’m trying to write more often on this site, and recently started making my own video games again, this game jam caught my eye because of its theme: Resist.

As someone who is very politically plugged in, I’ve desperately wanted to make games as a form of protest, especially since I’m working on small game project after small game project for my new class. I hope that by March 3rd, I’ll be ready to make SOMETHING that could be original and interesting. I expect some amazing art being produced that week by developers from everywhere. Anti-Trump games should be angry, unsettling, hilarious, disgusting, and most importantly thought-provoking.

My conscience is desperately trying to convince me that I’m too unprepared for this, but I feel like it’s absolutely perfect because there are way too many things aligning for me. March 3rd is a huge day for me personally. For one, my inspiration will go beyond its peak thanks to the week of The Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) and Nintendo. GDC is always a time where I feel either madly depressed or wildly elated. Seeing the independent games community show off their best and brightest always injects my veins with an unsafe amount of hope and thoughts that say, “maybe one day that’ll be me.” The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is my favorite part of the week. When I watch the GDC and IGF award shows (which I’ve attended once as VIP by the way), I have the most bittersweet experience. I keep thinking, “I wasted another year” while also thinking “That could be me.” This year, I won’t attend but will be watching as a game developer. I can say that. In the last two weeks, I’ve made 4 short games, and one that’s ACTUALLY pretty fun. I’ll share when it’s done. It’s thanks to my new game design class, where students make a game a week. By the time the Resist game jam approaches, I hope to feel somewhat comfortable enough to produce something worthy of your time. GDC and the IGF will get me fired up for this, but that’s only a small bit of inspiration in comparison to what Nintendo will be doing for me that weekend.

On March 3rd, Nintendo will release their new console, the Nintendo Switch. With any console comes a killer app launch title. In the case for the Switch, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is that killer app. If you’ve read anything from me, or have seen me in person, then you know that Zelda is my favorite franchise in entertainment. The series is responsible for the foundation of my nerdiness, creativity, and inspiration. Of course I’ll be picking that up on day 1. I’m afraid how hardcore I’ll be that week for the Resist Jam because I’ll be surfing on the Zelda hype waves.

Having GDC, IGF, Nintendo Switch, and a new Zelda game is more than enough for me to view March 3rd like my childhood-self viewed Christmas, but that’s not all. No. There’s one more thing, and it’s more personal. I’ve been committing to a big lifestyle shift and cutting out junk food for myself, with hopes that it’ll influence all of my loved ones. I was incredibly unhealthy, and even had some serious health scares in the past. My mind and diet needed to make a huge change, so I’ve been rebooting myself with a healthy hybrid veggie juice fast. I’ve been physically active, only drinking green juice and eating almonds and some fruits. I give myself some cheat days to eat something clean and vegan. I started on January 3rd and vowed to go until March 3rd, and this was before Nintendo made the new console release date announcement. Since then, I’ve lost 30 lbs, I feel way more alert, active, in control of my life, mentally healthier, have more energy, and feel overall happier. It looks like my life, just like Nintendo, will be making the…SWITCH! Don’t hate me for that pun. Be proud of me.

Too many things seem to be aligning for me. On March 3rd, all of my new positivity, new game design education, inspiration, and anger towards the people running our country will be locked on the goal to make the biggest middle-finger-game to our president that I can possibly think of. I am fully committed to do my part, and protest in my way. Everyone interested, join me by making your own Resist themed game.